


Cliff's Edge

by defyaugury



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, F/M, Family Vacation, M/M, Questioning Lance, gayyyyyyyyyyy, queer keith, some massive family drama cause that's how families are
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 18:30:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12305118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defyaugury/pseuds/defyaugury
Summary: Lance McClain was without a doubt painfully, obviously, and undeniably straight. And if there was one thing Keith had learned in his twenty years of life, it's that you never, ever, fall for a straight boy.---Otherwise known as the AU where Lance drags Keith with him to his family's vacation and he learns what having a family really means.





	Cliff's Edge

"You want me to go _where_?" Keith said, staring at Lance.

Lance let out a huff and slumped forward over the table in the middle of their campus's dining hall, nearly smearing his jacket in his ketchup. "The _Outer Banks_ ," he reiterated, like Keith was stupid.

V Hall was perhaps one of the largest eating facilities on campus, smack in the middle of everything and less than a minute walk to the Quad. It was the easiest place to meet up, drawing crowds of students by the hundreds every day. It just so happened to also be the gang's favorite hang out. Not only was the food great, but the buffet style allowed Hunk and Lance to get into as many eat-offs as possible before Hunk puked. And since it was nearing the end of the spring semester, the lawn and stone benches around the back of the Hall allowed the group a few minutes of basking in the sunlight before their next classes.

As it were, the gang was currently crowded around a small, circular table in the corner of the dining hall, most of them having already finished eating. Pidge sat on the far side, her feet propped up on a stollen chair as she flitted through her iPad that she no doubt had already re-programmed to hack federal defense codes on command. Allura sat just on the other side of Pidge, her hair up in a massive bun and looking haggard as finals for her sports and fitness classes grew steadily closer. She rested her head on Shiro's shoulder, who looked nearly as tired as she did. Hunk took up nearly half the table himself, sitting on the other side of Lance, scarfing down yet another serving of lasagna.

Lance leaned back and slurped at the last of his smoothie. "My family goes during the summer every couple of years," he explained. "We can't go every year of course, because it's too expensive and not everyone can make it to the East Coast, but we're going this year for a week or two and I'm allowed to bring a friend."

Keith felt like he was back in his Calc class trying to decipher an algorithm that didn't make sense. "Wait, so, _you_ want to bring _me_?"

Lance nodded. "Yep."

"To hang out with you and your family for two weeks at the beach?"

Lance slurped down the rest of his smoothie and let out a contented sigh. "Yep."

Keith stared at Lance blankly. " _Why?_ "

Lance rolled his eyes. "Look, it's not like you're my first choice or anything—"

" _Lance!_ " Shiro snapped from across the table.

Lance threw his hands in the air. "What!? I'm not allowed to be honest?"

"No," Allura stepped in, head still firmly on Shiro's shoulder. "But you could stand to be a little more considerate."

Pidge snorted from behind her iPad. "Have you _met_ Lance?"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on," Keith said, trying to roll back the conversation to the topic at hand. "Why are you inviting me? I thought you said we were rivals?"

Lance gave another frustrated little huff. "We are."

"Then I'll ask again: _Why are you inviting me?_ " Keith said, growing more and more frustrated. "Why not Hunk? I thought you guys were best buds?"

Hunk shook his head, finally setting down his empty, tomato sauce covered plate. "No can do. I have to go home and help Dad on the boat. And getting a flight back out to the main land just for a few weeks is _way_ to expensive for my tastes."

"Then what about Pidge?" Keith asked, pointing at the back of Pidge's iPad. "Didn't you want some team-bonding time or whatever?"

Lance hadn't shut up about "team bonding time" since he, Hunk, and Pidge had all been assigned to a group project spanning the course of three semesters.

Lance scoffed. "Alright, I know _we_ all know Pidge isn't a girl, but my mom's _way_ too old-school to get the whole non-binary deal and bringing a _girl_? That'd go over about as well as World War III. And Shiro can't go because he has that summer class."

Shiro offered Keith an apologetic shrug from across the table.

"And why do you have to invite anyone at all?" Keith asked, glaring at Lance.

Lance let out a short laugh. "Have you _met_ my family?"

Keith's eyebrows creased. "No."

Lance ignored him. "Spending an entire two weeks with them is going to drive me crazy. I need _someone_ from the outside world to keep me sane."

Keith rolled his eyes, "And what if I say no?"

Lance's eyes suddenly grew to the size of dinner plates. "What?! You can't just say no!"

Keith shrugged. "I can. What makes you think I want to spend an entire two weeks with your family?"

"Wh-but-but," Lance sputtered, jumping to his feet and knocking his chair over in the process.

Keith scowled up at him. "I have better things to do than adhere to your every whim, you know."

"What better things could you possibly have?!" Lance all but shouted. "Tell me, I want to know right now."

It was a good thing the dining hall was crowded with noise, otherwise they'd be attracting quite a lot of attention.

"It's none of your business!" Keith said, jumping to his feet too, though he wasn't sure why.

"Are you saying my family's not good enough for you?!" Lance asked, getting in Keith's space.

"No! I'm just saying I might have other plans for my summer break!" Keith said, getting equally in Lance's space until the two were literally butting heads.

"And what plans, exactly, are you referring to, Keith?"

The both of them froze, argument stopping mid-shout, in order to look at Shiro. Allura seemed to have finally fallen completely asleep and was now snoozing on said amputee's shoulder, but Shiro himself looked completely calm and in control.

Keith blinked. "What?"

"I said," Shiro said, just as smoothly as before. "To what plans for the summer are you referring to?"

Keith stared at Shiro. He couldn't believe this. Shiro was taking Lance's side— _Lance's_ side—over his?

"Well," Keith said, stuttering. "I was, I—"

"Because, personally," Shiro said, moving to start stacking everyone's plates. Allura's head rolled forward and into his lap, but he ignored it smoothly. "I'd rather you not shut yourself away in that apartment of yours for the entire summer, coming up with more alien conspiracy theories _again_."

Keith gapped at Shiro. "Wha—But, Pidge helps me with those!"

"Please don't drag me into this," Pidge piped up from behind her iPad, glasses flashing. "And for the record, they're scientific hypothesis, _not_ conspiracy theories."

"The point, Keith," Shiro continued, "is that I think we can all agree that some time out in the sunlight, surrounded by people, might do you some good."

"You can't be serious," Keith said. He looked around at the others, pleading for some kind of backup.

"Actually, I agree with Shiro on this," Hunk said. "You have been a little moody lately."

Keith shot him a withering glare.

Hunk winced. "See, and that is exactly what I'm talking about. Sunlight and fresh air always help a cranky attitude, at least that's what my mom says."

"I don't have a cranky attitude," Keith said crankily as he fell back into his chair. "Allura, what do you have to say?"

There came a sleepy grumble from beneath the table that sounded distinctly like, "I agree with Shiro."

Pidge remained resolutely behind her iPad, tapping at the screen furiously.

Keith glared at the table, crossing his arms over his chest. He couldn't believe he had such a mutinous group of friends. He glanced back up at Lance.

Lance quickly looked away. Now that he wasn't yelling anymore, he looked slightly awkward, standing in the middle of the eating hall, his chair on its side. He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, still looking at the ground.

"You can choose not to go," he finally said, if a bit begrudgingly. He gave a shrug. "I just thought it'd be fun, you know, since we're friends or whatever. But the choice is up to you."

Keith gave a groan and buried his face in his hands.

* * *

 

The early signs of dawn still had yet to show themselves as Keith and Shiro pulled into the driveway of the McClain house. A dusty shadow of pale blue lay over the never ending line of rooftops and as Keith stared up at the house, he let out a small hiss, as if the sight physically pained him.

Shiro leaned forward over the steering wheal to peer up at the house and gave a low whistle, obviously impressed.

It was huge—bigger than any foster home Keith had ever lived in, reaching two stories tall and no doubt hiding a finished basement beneath it. Keith's palms suddenly grew damp as he gripped the passenger door handle of Shiro's car.

"Hey, buddy, you alright?" Shiro asked, tapping Keith on the shoulder.

"Shiro, I don't think I'm ready for this," Keith muttered staring up at the monster of a house.

What was he _doing_ here? God, this had been such a stupid idea.

The rest of the spring semester had finished off without a hitch. Pidge had aced all her computer classes while barely scraping by in everything else. Shiro and Allura had passed with flying colors, and, as expected, Keith had managed to trump all of Lance's grades by the double digits.

And yet, even as the semester ended and they had a big send-off party for Hunk, who was going back to Hawaii for the next three months, Keith still had yet to make a decision. Even through finals, he'd spent hours talking Shiro's ear off, trying to figure out what he should do.

Keith had never had a family of his own—not a permanent one at least—so the only concept he had of what a family should be was what he learned from campy TV shows and movies. Based off of that and the fact that Hunk's dad had been practically the spitting image of his son that one time he'd come to visit Hunk in the dorms freshman year, Keith could only assume that families were meant to be a cohesive group—like cards from the same suit.

Families were meant to look like each other, to talk like each other, act like each other, and have a million different inside jokes and stories among themselves. And while Keith could stomach the idea of spending two weeks with one sassy, over-the-top, arrogant, superficial Cuban with the worst jokes imaginable, the thought of spending it with twenty or more of them was the most terrifying thing Keith had ever heard of.

"I'm sure the McClains are nothing like that," Shiro reassured Keith for what felt like the millionth time, never once looking up from his textbook as the two of them sat in a secluded library study lounge. "I'm sure they're all very nice people, now help me study. Ask me what two houses fought in The War of the Roses."

"The Lannisters and the Martells," Keith said quickly. "But I don't understand why he'd want me to come along. Maybe he's trying to ambush me."

Shiro quirked an eyebrow. " _You_ were supposed to ask _me_ and the answer was the House of Lancaster and the House of York."

"I'm serious, Shiro! What if Lance is just trying to undermine me? What if he's just trying to get me to come to pull some kind of prank?"

"Or maybe," Shiro said firmly, scribbling something down in his notes. "He genuinely sees you as a friend and wants to get to know you better."

Keith snorted. "Let's be realistic here."

Shiro spared him a glance. "I am, Keith. You're the only one that seems to think everyone doesn't want to be your friend."

Keith was stung by that. He stared at Shiro. "You're my friend."

Shiro closed his eyes, apparently realizing what he'd just said. He let out a sigh and leaned back, opening his eyes to finally look at Keith. "I am. And so are Allura and Pidge and Hunk—I didn't mean it like that. What I meant was that Lance is, too. Just give him a chance. I know you guys haven't always gotten along in the past, but that doesn't mean you should give up on ever trying to get along in the future. Who knows, maybe it will end up going better than you could have ever imagined."

Keith wrinkled his nose. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Shiro only offered him a knowing look before going back to his study notes.

Left with that and an adamant request for him to leave so Shiro could study in peace, Keith spent the next few weeks mauling over the decision. Allura and the rest proved to be just about as helpful when he tried to hound them. Pidge remained resolutely out of the discussion, refusing to say a word whenever Keith brought it up. And when he tried to ask Hunk, he got much of the same answer as from Shiro.

"I don't know, man," Hunk said with a shrug as he continued eating his sandwich. "Lance likes to get to know his friends. It's just what he does. Like that time he offered to go to Pidge's space camp thing with her for three weeks."

Keith didn't know what to say to that. He had no idea Lance had even offered to go with Pidge—of course she would have refused, but still the offer was a big one considering Lance knew nothing about space or aliens.

In the end, after weeks of see-sawing over his options, Keith came to a last-minute decision to go, having left Lance a hasty voice mail and throwing a few clothes into a bag and racing over to Shiro's for a ride. Sure, he didn't know Lance's family—hell he wasn't even sure he knew Lance too well—but at the very least it was a fully paid for two weeks at the beach in a multilevel beach house Keith would only be able to afford in his dreams for the next few years and Keith figured he could stomach a thousand Lances for that. Besides, Shiro threatened to forbid Pidge from sharing any more conspiracy theories with him until graduation if he refused to go.

But looking up at the hulking monstrosity of the McClain house, Keith was seriously starting to reevaluate his choices. He hadn't been entirely honest when he'd been talking with Shiro about choosing to come or not. Sure, he was worried about having to suffer through a million different puns and cheesy pick-up lines from twenty different people over the next few weeks, but more than that Keith was terrified. He was terrified of spending time with a family—a real family that he didn't belong to. And while, sure, Keith was used to being an outsider, having gone through most of college living by himself and most of his childhood running away from one foster home after another, this felt different. He'd be the only one on this entire trip not related to Lance by blood, surrounded by people who'd known each other for years and got along and had inside jokes with one another and had the kind of massive houses Keith had only ever seen in movies and Keith would just be... _there_. In the midst of it all, an outsider, and invader.

And it was that thought that terrified him like nothing else.

"Hey, Keith."

Keith nearly jumped out of his skin when Shiro's hand landed on his shoulder. He spun to face the other college undergrad and found comforting eyes and familiar face.

"Trust me," Shiro said, giving Keith's shoulder a squeeze. "Everything's going to be fine. Besides, it's only two weeks, what could possibly happen?"

Keith wasn't convinced. "Anything happens, you promise to come get me?" It was his only condition with Shiro on agreeing to go. He needed at least one way out.

Shiro gave a curt nod. "We'll have Pidge hack a helicopter and lift you out of there if we need to. But do me a favor?"

Keith blinked.

"Try to enjoy it?" Shiro said. "At least you'll be living it up at the beach, instead of locked in a lecture hall."

Keith probably would have paid money to switch places with Shiro at this point, but he didn't dare mention that. Instead, he gave Shiro a strained attempt at a smile and forced the lump in his throat down. Finally he gave a nod and pushed the passenger's side door open. With one last pitiful wave good-bye, Keith watched as Shiro's car rounded the street corner and disappeared from view.

Keith was left alone in the driveway of a house that probably cost ten times as much as his entire college career, with his small, pitiful backpack and no idea what was awaiting him behind the polished front door for the next two weeks. With a sigh, Keith made his way up the McClain household's front steps.

* * *

 

The house was, in a word, chaos.

After ringing the doorbell, Keith received a shout from inside saying the door was open and he could come in.

Despite the inhumanly early hour, it seamed every single light was on and not a single person left sleeping. Keith nearly tripped over the mountains of luggage stacked just inside the front door, despite the crowded luggage racks already atop the van outside.

A dozen blurred shapes darted around the house and it took Keith a moment to realize they weren't shapes at all, but people—kids of every shape and age, all with the same warm brown skin and chestnut hair as Lance. Some of them were darting up the stairs, some dragging more luggage to the front door, one was at the kitchen table having fallen asleep with a spoonful of breakfast cereal still in their hand.

"Papá!" came a shout from over the second floor banister. "Where's Mamá!"

"She had to stay overnight at the office!" came the reply from what looked like the only adult in the house as he passed by, a suitcase in one hand and a sleeping toddler in the other, still in footsie pajamas and her face squished against his shoulder. "She'll have to take another car, but she'll meet us there!"

"Papá! I can't find my toothbrush!" came another shout from a girl frantically searching through her duffle bag in the middle of the living room.

"Is it were you left it?"

"I don't know, where did I leave it?"

That conversation was then interrupted by a sobbing child screaming from the top of the stairs. "Papá, Clara said she flushed Mr. Wiggles down the toilet!"

"Clara! Give your brother his stuffed bear back!"

"Are the twins coming?" called another voice from deeper in the house. "I am not sharing a room with them again!"

"Okay! Who tried to pack a jar of jelly in _my_ suitcase!"

"Ah! You must be Keith!" the man from before—who Keith assumed to be Lance's father—paused as he caught sight of Keith standing awkwardly in the entryway. "My name's Samuel, but you can call me Sam—or Papá; that's what everyone else calls me, it seems."

Keith felt rather stunned as he took Mr. Sam's offered hand and shook it. Sam looked like Lance, it was true, but he also managed to look _nothing_ like Lance at the same time. He had the same short, brown hair, though with a matching mustache, and the same tanned skin, but he was shorter than Lance, and much broader in the shoulders, like he used to be a body builder, and his face was much squarer, with laugh lines and crinkled eyes that made Keith wonder if he ever stopped smiling. Also, Keith wasn't sure he'd ever seen Lance carry a child passed out on his shoulder.

"Lance has told us so much about you," Mr. McClain explained with a wide grin.

"More like he hasn't shut up about you for the last month!" came a shout from the toothbrush-less girl in the living room.

Keith blinked, stunned into silence. Lance...had been talking about _Keith_? Not only had he been talking about him, but apparently hadn't shut up about him? This was news. Keith didn't even think Lance had told his family that Keith existed, much less talked endlessly about him.

"Ah," Sam said with a laugh. "And that is Isabella." He pointed to the girl who'd just spoke in the living room. "There's also Val, Bryce, Cole, Marianna, Adrian, Manny, and Clara. And this one," he added, nodding to the child in his arms, "is our little Emma."

Keith blinked, unable to keep up with so many names. "Are...they all yours?" he finally managed.

At that, Sam let out a large, belly-roll of a laugh that made Keith jump. He was surprised to see little Emma sleep so soundly through it.

"Oh, _dios_ , no!" Sam said loudly. "My sister and her husband had something come up last minute, so I'm taking some of my nieces and nephews with us. Their parents will meet us there later— _oi!_ Valeria Sanchez McClain, you _know_ you're not allowed to bring that! Put it back!"

Keith could barely say anything else before Sam stormed off to corral yet another child. Left standing awkwardly just inside the door, wondering what he should do, Keith suddenly saw a familiar face walking by with a duffle bag slung over their shoulder and a soccer ball under their arm.

"Lance!" Keith said, reaching out and grabbing hold of their arm.

They spun, turning to face Keith and Keith...froze. He didn't understand. This was Lance, but it was also...not Lance. The stranger Keith had grabbed hold of was lanky and tall, but just shy of Lance's full height. They had the same impish face, the same hair, eyes, lips, nose—but it was...different. It was all slightly off, as if this face wasn't quite as old as Lance's.

"Oh—um," Keith said, growing red and immediately letting go of the stranger's arm. "Sorry, I didn't—"

The stranger grinned wide. "I guess you're Keith," he said. Then, without warning, "Lance! You're boyfriend's here!"

Seemingly from out of nowhere, Lance— _finally_ —slid into view, socked feet sliding across the hardwood, his jacket only half-on. He managed to whack the stranger upside the head, causing Not-Lance to drop his soccer ball, before sliding right into the front door.

"Shut up, Manny!"

Ketih watched as the dropped soccer ball rolled into the kitchen, followed quickly by a crash and a holler.

"Manny!" came Mr. McClain's angry shout.

"It was Lance's fault!"

"Was not!" Lance yelled back as he picked himself up from the floor.

Keith flinched when Lance grabbed hold of his shoulder to hoist himself to his feet. He didn't like people touching him without warning—even Shiro still had trouble remembering that sometimes. He quickly shrugged Lance off, but the other boy barely seemed to notice.

"I see you've met my little brother, Manny," Lance explained, shrugging on his jacket the rest of the way.

"I'm only _little_ by a few inches, estúpido," Manny said, dropping his duffle atop the ever-growing pile of luggage.

" _And_ two years," Lance added.

"Still more mature than you," Manny said as he stuck out his tongue.

Lance's response was a mocking face and rather rude hand gesture. He reached out to ruffle his little brother's hair before grabbing Keith's wrist and pulling him forward.

"Come on, you need to meet everyone," Lance said excitedly, leading Keith through the house without so much as a preamble or hello.

"This is my cousin Isabella," he introduced as he dragged Keith by the living room.

"Papá told him who I was," Isabella explained without looking up from her duffle bag. With a closer look, Keith could tell she was middle-school age, with a dozen different mermaid braids in her hair and a t-shirt with some Disney Channel star on the front.

"She gets her hospitality from her side of the family," Lance teased.

Isabella stuck her tongue out at him as they passed, Lance leading Keith into the kitchen. Keith could see the Not-Lance from before rooting around in the fridge before emerging with a slice of cold pizza in his mouth and two more in his hands. Keith was still stunned by how similar he looked to Lance, right down to the lanky frame and narrow hips. The sleeping child from before had now tipped forward, now sleeping with their forehead in their cereal bowl.

"You've met Manny," Lance explained. Manny nodded at Keith. "Younger brother and all that. _That_ one," he said pointing to the sleeping child, "Is Marianna. She was up till two this morning playing Overwatch."

Walking back out of the kitchen, Keith caught a better look at the sleeping girl to find she fell in the high school age range—closer to Manny's age, perhaps a year or two younger—with an Assassin's Creed t-shirt on.

"Papá!" Lance called as they walked by the front door again to find Mr. McClain wrestling with a handful of duffle bags. "Have you met Keith yet?"

"Ah! Yes we have, fine young boy. My son, can you take her for a moment while I load the cars?" Mr. McClain said slipping the still sleeping Emma into Lance's arms as easily as if he were tossing him a bag. "And you and Keith make sure everyone's ready to go, we're already behind and you know what you're mother's like if we're late."

And with that, Mr. McClain hefted no less than four bags into his arms and was out the door.

"Mamá is always late," Lance explained, switching Emma to his other shoulder. "Papá just likes to use that as an excuse. What—?"

Lance had apparently caught Keith staring at him with little less than open-mouthed awe. Keith blinked, shaking his expression away.

"Um, nothing, I just...never saw you hold a baby like that."

Lance laughed and Emma buried her face into the crook of his neck. "First of all, she's not a baby, she's two. Second of all, it's not like she's a _bomb_ , Keith. Come on," he said with a nod towards the stairs. "You need to meet everyone else."

Upstairs was nearly twice as chaotic as downstairs. Someone was blasting music from the bathroom, meanwhile two children—the boy looking to be around five or six, the girl maybe seven—were arguing at each other over what looked like a teddy bear. Isabella rushed by the two of them holding a toothbrush and Keith wondered how she'd gotten up here in the first place.

"Clara and Arian are brother and sister, our cousins," Lance explained, nodding towards the two screaming children. "Emma's their sister. Val," Lance added, nodding towards the closed bathroom with steam and music pouring from beneath the door, "is the art student at a private college. She's a cousin from mom's side, but her parents aren't coming."

Just then, Keith had to duck to avoid being nailed in the head with a soccer ball.

"Sorry!" the little boy, Adrian, said running up to get the ball back. Keith noticed he was a little chubby for a kid, and his two front teeth were missing.

"Manny!" the girl, Clara called. "Adrian took your ball again!"

"Clara!" Adrian whined.  
"Adrian!" Manny called from downstairs.

"Whoops," Adrian said, scooping up ball. "Gotta go!" he said, scurrying back down the hall.

The tell-tale sound of feet thundering up the stairs reached them, quickly followed by Manny swinging around the corner and running after Adrian.

"So why isn't your aunt and uncle coming?" Keith asked, following Lance back downstairs.

Lance shrugged, making Emma's head bounce up and down. "Said they couldn't make it or something—they had other plans, but they sent Val with us. Their part of the family don't really talk to us that much."

"That's a little weird, isn't it?" Keith asked.

Lance shrugged again. "Not really. Our family's big, so it's hard to keep up with everyone all the time. It's not like they never talk to us, we just don't see them that much."

Keith's brow furrowed, mauling what Lance said over. He thought families were supposed to be close, the kind of thing where everyone knew everyone else and what they were doing and on and on. For some reason, this made Keith suddenly self-conscious. He'd never had endless aunts and uncles and cousins to talk to or get together with for vacations. He didn't understand why people wouldn't keep up with a family if they had one to keep up with.

Lance led them into the kitchen, where Marianna was still sleeping soundly in her bowl of cereal, milk and soggy Reece's Puffs having already made their way into her short, choppy, hair.

"Mary!" Lance said, kicking her chair. "Wake up!"

The girl jerked awake, milk and cereal running down her face. "Wha—?"

"Papá says we're leaving soon," Lance explained. "This is Keith, by the way, he's coming with us."

The Mary blinked and rubbed the milk and sleep from her eyes. She yawned. "You never said he had a mullet," she said.

Keith immediately felt his face go red. Lance snorted before dissolving into a fit of rolling laughter, holding himself and Emma upright by holding onto the counter. Keith self-consciously ran his fingers through his hair and out of his face.

"Okay, so I've met everyone," Keith said a little grumpily. "When are we leaving?"

"Not everyone," Mary said with another yawn as she propped her head on her hand. "There's still Mamá and Jess and everyone else who's going to be there."

Before Keith could ask who "Jess and everyone else" entailed, Lance spoke up.

"We're taking three cars," he explained as he began rummaging through kitchen drawers. "Val is driving Isabella, Adrian, and Clara with her. Papá is taking Emma and most of the luggage. You're with me, Manny, and Marianna."

"You know, if you put half the brain power it took to remember all those names into your studying, you'd be as smart as Pidge," Keith teased.

"Shut-up, Mullet," Lance said, chucking a spoon at Keith's head. Keith easily dodged it. "Anyways, since I'll be one of the drivers, that makes _you_ the communicator."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Keith asked.

He was immediately answered by a walkie-talkie being thrown in his face. He managed to catch it only just in time, the thing weighing about the same as a brick and looking like it was older than Isabella.

"What's this?" Keith asked.

"Um, _duh_ ," Lance said, hefting Emma on his hip as he pulled out two more from the drawer. "It's a walkie-talkie, it's how we'll talk to each other on the way down there."

"Why can't you just call each other?" Keith asked, turning the dinosaur of a device over in his hands.

"'Cause that's not near as much fun!" Lance said. "We do it every year, everyone gets code names, and we play road games and stuff. I'm thinking my nickname is gonna be Sharpshooter and your's can be Mullet. "

"What, I don't get to pick my own nickname?" Keith asked.

"Nope," Lance said happily. "Gotta be in the family at least ten years before earning that privilege. Clara and Adrian are Stinker and Stanker."

Keith raised an eyebrow and tried to cast a questioning glance at Mary, but the girl was asleep again, propped up on her fist. Keith let out a sigh and looked back up to find Lance grinning at him, surrounded by a house filled with more people than Keith's pretty sure he's met in his entire life and even more waiting for them once they finally reached the beach.

This was looking like it was going to be a long two weeks.

**Author's Note:**

> If y'all haven't heard Hayley Kiyoko's Cliff Edge, then y'all need to remedy that immediately.


End file.
